Chapter 13

In the midst of a Smokescreen!

Steven lay there, unsmiling. It was chilling to Kazo, who had always looked up to Steven, as an authority figure; therefore it was kind of awkward thinking of him as an enemy. Steven, however, kept his cool and spoke.

"Connor, I'll watch this battle from close up and see how you're doing, and if I made a right choice about promoting you to Admin. Why don't you take care of this nuisance?"

"Yes sir." Connor stepped forward and clutched the only pokeball on his belt.

"Connor, why? What about your dad?"

"Oh, he's far, far, away now. And his research is mine. But you're my only obstacle. As we speak, your other teammates are diving to their doom."

"What?!" Kazo asked, stupefied.

"The two museum punks are going in a research pod down to a ridiculously large energy source. Once they get near it though, they will become part of it and will not be able to escape, and will either drown or get all their vital organs so weak from the energy drainage that they will die. There is no escape."

Xero stepped in after Leo into the small submersible. "Let's get a move on." Leo nodded, closing the class cockpit to the submarine. They slowly descended into the dark waters of the Slateport night.

"…so, you're going to be the last one left. And that's why you'll have to die."

Kazo gulped. He knew there would be danger involved in this quest, but this is the first time he felt honestly threatened by another individual.

"Go! Seadra!" Connor sent out a large seahorse with an evil glint in its eye.

Kazo recognized a challenge. "Go…" before he could finish his sentence, a pokemon burst itself from its belt. "Shellder?" The bivalve pokemon looked happily into Kazo's eyes. "Fine… but don't let me down!" The Shellder nodded, and began readying for battle.

"Shellder! Start things off with a bubble attack!" Bubbles were sent flying at Seadra, but Connor just smirked. "Seadra! Now!"

Seadra began dancing up and down, causing rain to fall from the sky in huge globs.

"A Rain Dance? That'll just help me!" Kazo yelled into the growing rainstorm.

"Seadra!" The pokemon blasted a tornado from the small wings on its back, and the rain got caught in the twister attack, causing an out-of-water whirlpool. The bubbles were simply absorbed.

"Now! Counter that bubble attack!" Kazo didn't understand. That was not an attack, that's for sure. He only just stood there as the Seahorse blasted a mad jet of water, followed by a tornado at the small clam pokemon.

Selena closed her eyes. This was a full fledged nightmare. She had to do something… Alert Kari and Felix. But how? She was hiding on the last staircase of a run down lighthouse. She had no hope at all! Unless…

"Staryu." She sent out her starshape pokemon. "Get to the top of the lighthouse and use a super strong swift attack that can be seen from anywhere in the city. Hurry!" Staryu nodded, and began climbing up the staircase.

"Shellder! Use a clamp attack!" Shellder shut its mouth on Seadra's head, causing it to wail loudly.

"Seadra! Smokescreen attack!" Seadra filled the small area at the top of the lighthouse with a thick, eye-stinging smoke. Kazo coughed loudly, and gave another order.

"Shellder, use a bubble attack to clear a path through the smoke!" Shellder obeyed, but the bubbles had little effect on the shrouding black fog, that simply patched up the small rip in the smoke.

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!" From what was seemingly nowhere, a jet of water slammed into Shellder, knocking it into a wall. Kazo heard its last whimper. He looked around frantically for his pokemon, trying to return it.

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!" Kazo couldn't believe his ears. He had already won. What else did he, could he possibly want? Then a sentence in the trainer's rulebook came back to him.

"Subsection 17

Paragraph 4

Lines: 6-9

A pokemon trainer has no right to attack a fainted pokemon purposely. Consequences for doing so can amount to serious fines and, depending on the severity of the injury, several years in a high security prison."

This was against the law! But, he couldn't honestly say he was surprised. These were villains… Real villains. But did this make him a hero? He didn't think so… He had failed.

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!" Kazo heard again. He shouted, mostly out of anger:

"WHY ARE YOU SUCH A FRIGGING PSYCHOPATH?!" There was no answer for a moment, but then there was:

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!"

It hit Kazo right there. Not Seadra, but a realization. He sent out Chinchou. "Chinchou! Use Flash and light up this dump!" Within seconds, the area was lit up, and the smoke began fading away. Kazo gasped at what he saw what was in Connor's place.

It was a small white tape recorder.

He walked up to it and hit the arrow facing to the right, the universal "play" button. Then, the same monotonious voice emerged from the tape recorder:

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!"

And it looped over and over again.

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!"

"Seadra! Follow up with a water gun attack!"

"Seadra! Follow up wi-" Before it could finish its third sentence, Kazo threw it off the top of the lighthouse and cracked a smile for the first time in hours once he heard the reassuring crushing noise as it hit the solid concrete a hundred feet beneath him. He promptly returned Shellder and Chinchou, when he heard a scream from the top of the lighthouse. He looked for any possible means to get there, and found one. A ladder made out of thin steel was hooked up to a small hole in the ceiling in the north-west corner of the room. He ran up to the ladder and just as he stepped one foot onto it, it collapsed. He sighed loudly. How could he have been so stupid? In the midst of the smokescreen, Connor and Steven both made clean getaways and unhooked the ladder. He had to get up there.

Luckily enough, he spotted one end of a rope lying under a barrel full of marketplace supplies. He pushed the barrel out of the way, and took the rope. It seemed steady. He couldn't believe what he was about to do.

He walked over to the edge of the lighthouse and looked up. There were several hooks that served no appearent purpose on the rim of the slanted roof. Then he made the mistake of looking down.

There was a lot of fog that night, so he couldn't see the city very clearly. But he heard the hustle and bustle well. The noise of car alarms, the distant noise of crashing waves, and the sound of a singing Misdreavus troop along with the leading Mumaaji gliding over the graceful surf…

Then he came back to reality. Reality that was hanging over a hundred feet from the ground by a rope getting wind so cold into his eyes that he was blinded, all in some pathetic attempt to reach the top of a lighthouse from a random high-pitched scream that might have been a figment of his imagination.

Oh, what he'd give to be singing along with the Misreavus troop now, sitting in the back seat of one of those abnoxious cars, or watching the surf on the beach along with his friends, particularly Selena…

Then he shook his head again. That moment would come someday. But right now, he had some climbing to do.

Harnessing all of his strength, he pulled himself up. At one point, there was nothing to push his feet against, and it was all in his upper arm muscle, which there wasn't much of.

After what seemed like hours, a very beat up Kazo crawled onto the roof of this lighthouse, and gasped.

Selena's motionless body lay in front of him.

This episode is dedicated to HexManiacKayleigh (Who the coordinator Kayleigh was based off of), Mikataiyou (Coordinator Mika) and Oboe Shoes (Galaxy Grunt Oboe) of the Trsrockin forums for supporting me in the making of this fic. I owe a lot to them.

Thanks Guys.